According to the Humane Society, only Virginia, California, Hawaii, New York, Georgia, and Michigan have laws that specifically prohibit the consumption of dogs and cats—and the specifics of those laws do much to help understand the vagaries that have resulted in it remaining legal elsewhere.

In New York State it is expressly prohibited for “any person to slaughter or butcher domesticated dog (canis familiaris) or domesticated cat (felis catus or domesticus) to create food, meat or meat products for human or animal consumption.” Not covered are eating the meat, or killing your pet gerbil/hamster/etc. California however, bans the consumption of “any animal traditionally or commonly kept as a pet or companion,” which is at once stricter and even more vague—pigs are, for instance, rather easily and not infrequently domesticated. Bizarrely, Virginia has perhaps the most straightforward laws; it’s illegal to kill an animal not used in farming activities.

One simple explanation for why there is no federal law prohibiting the consumption of dog or cat meat is that it does not appear to be an especially a widespread problem—while the New York Times reported in 1904 that miners were eating dog meat during times of food shortages, the practice largely petered out after that. But there are a few occasions when law enforcement officials have happened upon individuals preparing dogs and cats for consumption. Slate reported in 2010 that a man was pulled over for blowing a stop sign, only for law enforcement to find “a live cat in his trunk, covered in cooking oil, peppers, and salt. Korkuc told authorities that his pet feline was “possessive, greedy, and wasteful” and that he intended to cook and eat it.” As he had not yet killed the cat, he was charged with animal cruelty.

In Pennsylvania, where there are not laws to prohibit dog meat consumption, officials in 2003 seized 150 Jindo dogs, which are widely bred for meat in South Korea, who were being held by a man who admitted he was raising them for their meat—his operation was shut down and the animals saved on the grounds that the dogs were being held in unsanitary conditions. In both cases common sense and decency prevailed and regional law enforcement were able to find appropriate ways to address cruelty within the current letter of the law.

But with some claiming that there are puppy mills breeding dogs for human consumption right here in the U.S., it does seem reasonable—and long overdue—that the Federal government clarify and unify animal cruelty laws to explicitly ban the killing and consumption of domesticated animals.

crefftwr you have no idea what your talking about, Pigs are smart yes but so are dogs and majority of animals on the planet. Beef is being banned in some countries and I pray for the day all meat is banned! God or who ever you believe in (our creator) did not put other life here for us to abuse, slaughter, and treat as we wish!! They were put here to learn from and get along with, to respect. Thou Shalt Not Kill, That's why we have fruits, vegetables, nuts and berries. ALL ANIMALS SHOULD BE FREE AND LOVED AND RESPECTED, NOT KILLED AND EATEN. WE ARE NOT BARBARIANS, or at least not all of us. you on the other hand i'm not so sure about with your comments. You disgust me crefftwr and I hope someday you actually grow some compassion of all life and not just the Selfish evil being you are now.

Who are you to say what other people can and can not eat? Would you stop someone from eating beef? Chicken? Pigs are more intelligent than dogs, should we take pork off the menu? Just because you think something is fluffy and cute does not mean it should be illegal to eat it. Either ban all meat or piss off and good luck with that. If I decide to have some energizing dogmeat to help me through the summer that is my buisness not yours.

"the Federal government clarify and unify animal cruelty laws to explicitly ban the killing and consumption of domesticated animals." No, that would includes cows, chickens, pigs, and other domesticated animals that people enjoy eating.

This is stupid. Dogs and cats are no different from other animals. I have a pet rabbit. So should I go and try to change laws so other people are not allowed to eat rabbits? No. It's none of my business what species other people choose to eat.

No offense but there are many animals being slaughtered and raised specifically for consumption. Not just dogs and cats and putting an illegal stamping just because it's a dog or a cat only because people raise it as pets is contradictory and hypocrite. Not to mention S.Korea is South Korea what gives people the right to change another country's culture? U.S is not exempt from its' crazy and heinous way of life a much bigger issue among actual people instead of concentrating on animals and other country's way of life. You're a hypocrite.